Young scientists shine at Cawthron Scitec Expo

A budding conservationist and a seaweed expert have taken out two top prizes at this year’s Cawthron Scitec Expo.

In late October, Nayland College student Ra Edmonds and Nelson College student Ben Mercer were recognised for their top-quality research within 250 projects from students attending 26 different schools throughout the Nelson Tasman region.

Hosted at Founders Heritage Park, students were judged by more than 50 scientists, education specialists, artists and other professionals over two days.

Ra won the Albert Jones Award along with $500 for the best research project.
Ra’s project detailed 12 years of predator control data taken from their grandparent’s farm in Mārahau, contextualising the country’s progress towards being predator-free by 2050.

“I’m hoping to go into conservation work or something similar once I leave school,” Ra says.

Ben also won $500, along with the John Cross Award for the best scientific investigation.

The eager young chemistry student was able to work with Cawthron scientists for his investigation into the antioxidation of karengo seaweed.

“I had done some work with Cawthron last summer. My chemistry teacher, Mr Riley, had a contact there and they suggested I look into seaweed,” he says.

Ben says it was “awesome” to work with real-life scientists and he’s already eyeing up a potential scholarship for late next year.

Ben will be using the $500 for a new laptop before he begins his Bachelor of Science degree in Otago next year.

“I’m just waiting around to get into it,” he says.

More than 60 other awards were sponsored by local businesses and organisations to the value of nearly $7000.

Co-lead judge, Jenny Pollock of the Nelson Science Society, said all students deserved to be congratulated for completing their projects under such trying circumstances this year.

“The projects we saw at Founders were impressive and showed that students, and in some cases whole classes, had carefully thought about their technology project, research, scientific experiment or art project.”